COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Harrison School District 2 has been seeing some push-back lately from some students and parents who said they are upset by changes in the district.

Two weeks ago about 100 students walked out of Sierra High School saying they were protesting changes implemented by Superintendent Mike Miles.

A heated board meeting was held later that night.

FOX21 News decided to put the issue on the "balance bar" and take an in depth look at what's going on in District 2.

Monday, FOX21's Abbie Burke sat down with Miles to hear his side.

Balance Bar: Part 1

Miles said he's confused by the recent protests and added the school district hasn't really made any big changes.

Demanding high quality instruction and raising the level of the rigor for students is nothing new at Harrison, according to Miles.

"There have been no big changes. Now I hear 'change, change, change,' we've been raising the level of rigor for our students for six years. This is the sixth year that we've been doing this, and we've been looking for high quality instruction and more critical thinking in our classrooms, so this is nothing new," Miles said.

He said the district is working on a five-year-plan called "Destination 2016" that includes goals of a 90 percent on-time graduation rate and 70 percent of graduating students considered college and career ready.

"A diploma is not enough anymore. The diploma has to be matched with skills, critical thinking skills, economic skills, math and science, reasoning skills, those are the skills kids need," Miles said.

Miles said they want kids to graduate with the skills they need to either enter college, without remediation, or to enter the year 2020 workplace. He said that the district is moving away from credits or "seat time" and focusing more on proficiency.

"Over many decades we've kind of said you know, look your seat time, the fact that your survived high school and you went to these many courses and you pass, that's enough. Well that's not enough, not enough for our kids at Harrison," he said.

Miles said a student's proficiency is based on multiple factors.

"It's not based on one test. It's based on multiple measures of student's proficiency. So for an elementary student we might look at a reading test called DIBELS, or we might look at the state test in whether or not they are proficient third grade readers, and a combination of district tests, state tests," he said.

He said assessments such as those tests can affect a student's grade, but only up to 20 percent.

"The common assessments that all kids take, the scores on those assessments can not affect more than 20 percent of a student's grade. So you ask, does it impact and the answer is yes, but only 20 percent, so a teacher couldn't say to a student 'look if you don't pass this, you're gonna fail.' This is only 20 percent of the grade," he said.

Miles said teachers can take test anxiety or poor testing performance into consideration, but he also added that testing is a part of life.

"Demonstrating your learning is a part of school. Demonstrating your learning is part of life, and you can't go into a job and say you know 'I have interview anxiety' and then think the employer has an obligation to hire you. So we take tests in school, that's what we do and we're not gonna apologize for that," Miles said.

District 2 will also be implementing differentiating diplomas in two years. Miles said there will be a regular diploma, a college and career ready diploma, and an honor diploma.

He said the diplomas aren't meant to punish anyone, but to recognize students who have worked hard.

"We're trying to send a signal to the students that are doing well, here's something, here's something to recognize all your hard work. That doesn't diminish the regular diploma," he said.

He added schools give out awards all the time, and this is no different.

"Sometimes kids who have a high GPA get gold ribbons, or they're in the National Honors Society, they have a tassel that's a different color, or a ribbon that they wear during graduation, things like that."

Miles said he knows that expectations have been raised, but he believes the students and the teachers can live up to them if they step it up.

"The real expectation is can you graduate with a level of proficiency needed to get a good job to go to college? And that's it. That's the raised expectation that we're talking about, and the overwhelming majority of our community understands it, agrees with it, supports it," he said.

Miles said teachers play a big role in preparing students for life after school.

"It is very clear in our profession that the teacher makes the difference, and a great teacher will help kids, even those who are behind, and those who are not kids get further behind. It is important to every kid at every grade to have a great teacher in front of them," he said.

Last year District 2 implemented a pay for performance plan, which ties teacher's evaluations to student performance.

"Half of their evaluation is based on performance, classroom instruction is a main part of that, and then half is based on student achievement," Miles said.

According to Senate Bill 191 all school districts in the state will have to implement some way of tying student achievement to teacher evaluations by the 2013-2014 school year.

Miles said he doesn't expect teachers to be perfect, but he does expect them to improve year after year. He said as long as teachers are progressing, they have nothing to worry about.

"Our kids in Harrison need effective teachers. Now we don't expect a first year, second, or even third year teachers to be effective. We've set a pretty high bar for that. But over time you can not stay in Harrison several years and not be effective," Miles said.

Miles said the goal is to create effective teachers, and the district will provide coaching and support.

"We have a number of teachers who are progressing, and what happens with the progressing teachers is we give them very specific job imbedded feedback and coaching on how to improve, and so there's a lot of staff development. There's a lot of coaching, there's a lot of feedback to improve a teacher's performance, and the overwhelming majority of our teachers are making good progress, and they're effective," he said.

MIles admits some teachers have left the district but said that happens every year.

"I think every district loses teachers to other districts in the area. So the answer is yes, we've had some teachers resign and that happens every year, and we've had some teachers go to other districts and that happens every year, and it's happened every year since Harrison probably opened or started," he said.

Miles said it's about what's best for the students, and that while there may be a few people who are upset, the majority of the community is behind him.

"I call it the five angry people syndrome. You're gonna get a certain portion of the community that's not happy about raising graduation requirements. When you have change and higher expectations some people don't want those higher expectations, and that's okay. That's their right. But I don't want to paint the entire community that way, and I don't think they speak for the entire community," Miles said.

He also said he believes a majority of the teachers are also happy.

"I think the key message is that we have 95 to 98 percent of our teachers really focused on what kids need to know and be able to do and doing a great job. If you walk around the district, and I do this all the time, go to different schools, you're going to see kids learning, having fun, and you're going to see teachers teaching well."

Miles said he knows change can be uncomfortable, but he believes the district is on the right track.

"I mean, I think that's a natural course of things. We stand prepared to help them with that. You're going to have some students who are worried about more homework, you're going to have some parents worried about more homework, or whether or not their child will graduate. You're going to have some teachers worried, 'does it mean I have to change the way I teach?'"

Miles said getting kids college and career ready is of the utmost importance.

"Some people think this is an economic security issue, that you know if we don't graduate a work force that's ready and conserve the businesses, the military, public service, at the level that we need them to then we're actually gonna hurt our country and not just their own prospects, but our country's prospects. So I mean, we can sit back and continue to do things the way we've always done or we can really try to get all kids to be college and career ready, and lets not mistake for a moment that that's tough tough work for everybody," he said.

Balance Bar Part 2:

Monday FOX21's Rachel Welte also spoke with several students and a former teacher about what is going on in Harrison District 2.

Members of Sierra High School's student body government said they are not confused or misinformed.

They said they know what is going on in their school and district because they are seeing the changes first hand.

"What he is doing is great for our district because we have not had the best test scores, you do not hear great things about Sierra or Harrison," Sierra Student Body President Trey Fowler said.

So why then is Fowler, and so many other students upset?

They said it is simple: they do not like they way Superintendent Mike Miles, and the district, are going about their business.

"It is like they are playing survivor, who is going to get voted off next," Fowler said. "Communicate with people, have a sit-down conversation with them and not have them fearing for their job and a condescending tone."

Fowler said he and his fellow students walked out two weeks ago in defense of their teachers, who he said are leaving because of the constant pressure.

"They said they love us, but they just can not do it anymore," Fowler said. "They are tired of having to fear for their job."

Former Sierra High School english teacher Jennifer Young said that is why she voluntarily left earlier this month.

She said she was always under the microscope.

"I was observed every day in my classroom, and I would either get no feedback, or I would get very harsh and negative feedback," Young said.

Young said she did not feel like a professional, but rather another student.

She said she did not have the district's support when she needed it.

"It is management by fear, it is a lot of panic and frenzy there among the staff," Young said. "It is an overwhelming situation."

Young agreed changes do need to be made, but like her former students, she feels Miles would accomplish more if he mentored and coached his staff.

"The only interaction I had with any administrators were ones that were taking inventory of me, 'You did not do this... this... this and this," Young said.

It is that lack of interaction the students said is creating an uncomfortable environment for everyone that is unconducive to learning.

"If he could do it any other way then the way he is doing it now, it would be fantastic," Fowler said. "You would not have students walking out and teachers leaving."